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Obama Promises to Act on Climate Change

President Barack Obama vowed to “respond to the threat of climate change,” using his second inaugural address to press an environmental agenda that Republicans blocked in his first term.

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” Mr. Obama said. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.”

Environmentalists cheered the remarks, hoping that Mr. Obama would push harder to control greenhouse-gas emissions than he did in his first term. Republicans, many of whom are skeptical about global warming, were silent on a day when the GOP caucus was doing its best to tamp down long-held feelings of frustration with the Obama administration.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly pledged to make climate a second-term priority, but his options are limited. Legislation to curb emissions of greenhouse gases died in the Democratic-controlled Senate in 2010, and House Republicans aren’t likely to take it up again. Likewise, the House GOP is opposed to a tax on carbon…